New poll reveals immigration backlash

On a day where government released statistics showed that immigration fell by 163,000 in 2008 a new poll from Migrationwatch UK has revealed that the vast majority of the British public are worried about immigration and want it dramatically slashed to limit any forecasted population explosion.

In order to prevent the UK population reaching 70 million over the next two decades, as experts have predicted, net migration would need to be cut by around 50,000 per year. The YouGov poll revealed that 72 percent of Britons want the rate cut by 50,000 or less while 62 percent of Labour or Liberal Democrat voters want at least that figure reached.

The government has been blamed for most of the immigration concerns, with most pollsters showing a lack of trust in the government in an area which is looking large as key in the 2010 election. 77 percent of those polled did not feel that the government was honest and open about the topic, with only a third of Labour voters saying their government was being honest.

76 percent of people are worried about the impact of immigration on Britain, with the figure rising to 80 percent in the north of England. Just 5 percent claimed to be pleased with how the immigration issue is being handled.

Conservative opposition has used the poll to strengthen the argument against the government, saying that it is clear nobody believes what Labour is saying. Continued immigration at the current rate would add another seven million people to the UK population in the next 25 years, a clear indicator, say the Tories, that the matter is out of control.